December....WHAT!! Currently

I have been thinking so much about my new little elf book, the BIG sale on tpt, and the elf that is heading to my classroom, that I totally forgot it is Currently time!  So....pause....rewind....and squirrel.  I am linking up with Of Boy Fourth Grade and here is what I am doing Currently.

Let me start with Christmas traditions...my dad never let us play Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving.  Then, it seemed we couldn't get enough.  I love the old stuff and I love the instrumental.  My all time favorite purchase was the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas cds.  I play them for my students after lunch for about 5-10 minutes every day.

My mom always lit a bayberry candle for luck on Christmas eve...I continued that tradition with my own family.  It was fun to find that Tomie dePaola wrote a book about where that came from.

We also read the Christmas story from the bible and sing carols together each Christmas eve.  We turn out all the lights except the Christmas lights and light every oil lamp I own.  My husband loves buying them for me.  I have a bunch and could easily live like the Amish.

Thanksgiving weekend we gather up everyone and go up in the mountains to get a tree.  We get pinion pine because that is what we have.  Now for an eastern girl they are a little scruffy, but the needles stay for.ev.er.  So that is good and they smell wonderful.  Most of my family was here and I always feel so blessed when they are near.

My mom had surgery this past month (don't worry she is feisty and healing quickly), I was lucky to be able to take nearly three weeks off to go and help her recover.  It has been kind-of surreal.  I never take time off and am rarely absent.  So, while I was gone I had no real agenda other than to be my mom's go to girl.  I came home the Monday before Thanksgiving.  I was so focused on school and our feast and learning about the pilgrims that I did nothing about the Halloween stuff I left up when I left.  Thanksgiving dinner was at my daughter's house so it stayed up through the weekend.  But now I really do need to put it away and start decorating for Christmas.  I need to get that tree we just brought home out of my front yard.  (first I might do some more shopping...it is still cyber Monday)